I'm currently sitting in a brown plastic chair, nestled firmly in the red sand of Wadi Rum. The late afternoon sun in beating down on me, the heat of which competes with the cool desert breeze. All around me stands red sandstone mountains, each beckoning to either be climbed or photographed from a far. Small green shrubs and rocks litter the sand, but all I can hear are birds singing and the faint conversations of my group. It's hard to believe, after the last two years, that I'm actually sitting here in the desert. Covid had ended so many of my travel dreams, but here, now, I've finally beat it. I finally have a chance to slow down and stop. I finally have a chance to clear my head and think about life over some Jordanian black tea. It's been incredible to have the opportunity to travel to the Middle East and spend some time remembering there's a whole world out there.
Although, the first couple days were a bit of a hazy jet-lagged blur. It was a 26 hour flight to Amman, and I think I slept maybe 4 broken hours the whole way. We arrived in Amman just after 11:00pm, but after mandatory PCRs on arrive, and a nice Starbucks barista who let me use his phone so I could sort out our missing driver, we didn't arrive at the hotel until 1:00am. Exhausted, but unable to sleep, I didn't fall asleep until 4:00am, only to be woken 46 minutes later by the call to prayer. I tossed and turned the rest of the morning, willing sleep to come, until I finally woke at noon. Having missed breakfast at the hotel we set off in search of some food and coffee.
After a morning re-fuel we decided to cram in as much Amman as we still could. First up was the Citadel and a lying taxi driver who 5x overcharged us for the 2.5 minute drive up the hill. (I guess my travel sharpness was a bit rusty about 2 years off the road.) The
Citadel was really cool though, with sweeping views of Amman, which makes sense as Jebel Al-Qala'a is the highest hill in Amman (850m above sea level). The crumbling remains of the ancient Rabbath-Ammon and The Temple of Hercules were really quite amazing. Unfortunately, due to visitors and children climbing all over them, I wonder how much longer they'll be around for. We wandered around the area for a good while, taking in the views and the fact that we'd actually woken up in time to explore the city. Then, after catching glimpses of the Roman Theatre down below, we high-tailed it down the hillside on foot, zig-zagging down roads, stairwells, and perhaps the courtyard of someone's house.
I can't recall having ever been inside an ancient theatre before, so paid the 2 JOD and set about climbing the steep steps up to the nose-bleeds. The light was perfect as we sat on the worn stone seats, looking out at the bustling plaza below. Kids ran about as their mom's pushed prams after them. Groups of men gathered, chatting over cigarettes, while others sat on benches just enjoying their surroundings.
There's so much life in this city, and while some still wore masks outside, most people seemed quite calm, justing wanting to get on with life. I don't blame them. I want to as well. Especially as I sat there looking out at all the life there was to live.
The sun would be setting soon, and we still had to do more exploring before our group meeting tonight. So, we descended the crumbing stone steps and set off in the direction of our hotel. A quick peruse through the Lonely Planet told us that we were actually on one of their recommended walking tours and that just up ahead we could duck into the central souq. Perfect. I could go for a little snack top-up. The first point of entry on the south side of the souq held the fruit and vegetable stalls.
Row after row of perfectly placed greens, carrots, bananas, apples, grapes, pomegranates, and oranges, among many others, including an interesting fluorescent purple vegetable cut into long, thin, rectangles. Unfortunately, my Arabic skills are basically non-existent, as was the vendor's English. So I never did figure out what it was, but it tasted a bit like raw potato. Moving along through the spices we picked up some trail mix of dried apricots, figs, and nuts, in preparation for our upcoming hikes through Wadi Rum. Before leaving the market an array of sweet-smelling pistachio and baklava desserts caught my eye. Next thing I knew I had a small collection of every dish available wrapped up for me... and all for 1.5 JOD (or less than $3 CDN). My sweet tooth couldn't wait.
After a quick cappuccino at Jafra, a cute cafe around the corner from our hotel, we arrived just in time for our group meeting. Throughout my past travels I've discovered a tour company called Intrepid Travel. Now, I'm not a fan of proper tour bus tours where you're whisked from one popular tourist landmark to the next with just enough time to snap a couple photos before being ushered on to the bus again. I prefer more off the beaten path travel where you have time to see the cool landmarks, but also get the chance to really discover what a country and their people are really like. I like going down the backroads, finding hidden gems by accident, and supporting and interacting with the locals. Although this is generally best accomplished solo, I've found Intrepid Travel really facilitates this experience while also providing the safety of a group, the knowledge of a local guide, and it takes away the headache of organizing and booking your accommodations and transportation, which is especially helpful when you're on a tight timeframe. And due to the short amount of time we had for this trip, we opted for the ease of a group tour. Our group had 9 people plus our guide, Zaher. There was a mom and her son from Ireland, a woman from England, a North American couple who were living in Serbia, a Swiss woman on a 1.5 year tour around the world, and a teacher from either New Zealand, Kenya, or the UK (depending on her mood when you asked her). A solid group.
But before we could leave Amman, a visit with an old friend I knew from school in Liverpool was in order. I had no idea she was currently living in Jordan, but she messaged me the right before I left Canada to say that she was now living in Amman with her husband and newborn baby. So how could I pass up an invite to catch up over tea and meet her family! It was so lovely to see her again and meet her husband and sweet, tiny, baby boy. I truly cherish moments like that where you can meet up years later, in far away countries, share a cup of tea and a slice of apple cake, then find out you have all these mutual friends gained throughout the years. Pretty amazing.
Then just like that we were in the desert. Wadi Rum to be exact. (Side note: Wadi means between two mountains. One of the many new things I learned). We drove down to the south of the country, stopping short of Aqaba and the Red Sea, and swapped out our minivan for a few good old fashioned Land Cruisers. Then we turned off the blacktop and set tire to sand.
We weaved around the desert rocks and old tires sitting vertically in the sand. The sun was warm and a nice welcome from the chill of Amman. En route to our Bedouin-style campsite we stopped to check out the views from different vantage points, see some amazing rock bridges, then stretched our legs with a run up a sand dune.
We stripped off our shoes and socks and raced up the red sand. Now I don't know if yo've ever run up the sand before, but it's not easy. For every one step up, you feel like you've slid down two. But as much of a calf burner as it is, it was totally worth it to be atop the dune looking out at the vast expanses of the desert all around you. Plus, like with every other uphill climb, it's always worth it for the down, especially when the downhill involves a sandboard!
When we arrived at our campsite I was surprised to find individual semi-permanent tents. When I'd been camping in the desert previously in Morocco, our Bedouin-style campsites were actually large shared tents erected with wooden poles and draped in linens, and we slept on mats on the ground. This was way fancier, although not quite at the level of the luxury bubble tents they have somewhere out here in Wadi Rum. These tents were raised of the sand and constructed with metal bars and a thick linen covering. Each tent had two twin sized beds with proper (albeit hard) mattresses and pillows. There were also a plethora of thick fleece blankets, because the desert at night is COLD.
As I sat and watched the sun set over the red mountains of Wadi Rum, I couldn't help but feel at peace. What an incredible opportunity and privilege to be here and witness the grandeur of the desert. The Middle East gets such a bad reputation, but Jordan is unlike anything you hear about regarding the Middle East in the news. It's friendly. Safe. Welcoming. And comes with some pretty beautiful landscapes and a rich, rich history. But the one thing you do need to know about Jordan is that it gets REALLY COLD in the winter, especially in the desert. In no way do I regret having packed my down sleeping bag, my down jacket, my down hut booties, fleece long johns, toque, and gloves. My only regret - that I didn't pack more warm clothing. The desert is brutal. It takes no prisoners. It lures you in with the promise of sun and sand, then chills you to your core the instant the sun disappears from view. Yet as cold as it was, I slept hard that first night. 12 straight hours of pure sleep. It was amazing. I woke up the next morning feeling like a new woman finally awakened from her jet-lagged haze. The world was fresh and new and eagerly-awaiting my arrival. Just in time for some proper exercise.
We started our hike after a hearty breakfast of instant Nescafe, black tea, boiled eggs, pita bread, and jams. I have to admit, I was expecting a tough climb around the mountains so was a bit disappointed when I found out it was going to be flat the whole way. But once we started, there was no disappointment to be had. The sun was warm, the company great, the views fantastic, and each step energized me in excitement and wonder. How amazing everything was. How lucky I was to be here. We were even doing a little good through our plastic challenge. By the end of our 11km trek we'd managed to pick up more than 1 large black garbage bag of plastics and garbage that had been thrown out and forgotten in the sand.
One of the biggest things about travelling is the ability it has to open your eyes and make you change, or at least start to question, some of the things you do or habits you have. Plastics, for example. Maybe at home you don't think about that plastic water bottle you're drinking from because you know you'll just recycle it later. Or the plastic shopping bags you've picked up at the grocery store, because you'll pop it into the plastic bag collection you have in the closet (the one we all have) and use it again at a later date. But in most parts of the world recycling programs just don't exist, or are poorly developed if they do. That plastic water bottle isn't going to get recycled here. It's going to be thrown into the garbage or tossed into a river, or discarded in the desert sand. What you do, the decisions you make, have an impact on the world in which you live. It may be just one water bottle, or it may be an entire 2 week exotic vacation for your family of 4, worth of water bottles, all ending up in a farmers field or alongside the road.
Travel allows you to see these consequences first hand, and makes you think about how you can do better or do more. For example, what if you purified your water instead? $20 CDN for a water purification system at MEC gives you 120L of purified tap water anywhere in the world. And if the going rate for bottled water is $4 CDN for 1.5L of water, that's $192 and 48 plastic water bottles for 120L of water, versus $20 for purified tap water and zero plastic. Pretty decent. And you won't get sick. I promise. Drink the tap water. Save the world. (Or at least it's small step in the right direction).
So as I sit here in my plastic chair in the red sand of Wadi Rum, I can't help but think about how incredible this planet is, and how excited I am to start showing my daughter the world. But for now, I'll savour this moment of silence, drink my tea, soak in the sun, and mentally prepare myself for what's ahead on this Jordanian adventure.
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